Despite gloom and doom predictions of mass cancellations, Hawaii's Big Island and Maui have more tourists this April than pre-Covid in 2019. And on Hawaii's Big Island, which has had the second airport test for months now, they've beat both 2019 and 2018 tourist visitor numbers for April, an amazing accomplishment considering there are still no cruise passengers in the state.

While surely there will be the test-skittish who may cancel, there appears to be many more tourists who see the additional level of testing as a reason to visit with the area that much more safe from disease.

I have friends from the midwest who traveled to Hawaii a few weeks ago. One of their pre-travel test specimens got lost, so they had to scramble in the 11th hour for a re-test. And of course they had to deal with the test on arrival at KOA. But through the process, and without vaccination yet, they felt rather invincible and enboldened. Unlike their hometown, they were able to eat out inside and hang out around a pool without masks with fellow tested tourists. For them, they felt far safer on vacation than at home...which made the vacation that much more enjoyable tor them.

Am I misreading the charts? Maui so far in April looks lower to me than April 2019: https://dbedt.hawaii.gov/visitor/dai...senger-counts/

Regardless, matching 2019 numbers at this point shouldn't be hard for domestic tourism spots in the USA. The pent-up demand for travel is huge. The question is how much of it Hawaii turns away with dumb Covid policies.

Well, if I read the charts correctly the average weekly arrivals for the first week of April 2019 and 2021 were down 23% for the big Island, down 20% for Maui and down 38% for Oahu. So I don't think you can say any island in Hawaii has come anywhere close to their numbers in 2019. Perhaps Weatherboy was comparing 2020 and 2021.

Looks like there's a program in the works to exempt people who can prove they've been vaccinated from all testing (pre- and post-):

https://governor.hawaii.gov/wp-conte...ion-signed.pdf

Mentioned here.

Does anyone know how long this new policy is set to last? It sounds like they are doing it to try to "trace" where the new covid cases are coming from, so perhaps it'll only be a few weeks to a month? We have travel planned for May 19, we're all fully vaccinated - anyone think there's a chance they'll have the vaccine passport setup by then? They're saying "by summer" so it doesn't sound like May 19 would constitute "summer"

Based on the most recent article, inter-island may have a vaccine exception in place by May 1 with trans-pacific passengers following a month later. This would put your May 19 date at risk.

Here is the pertinent quote:
“If we do meet our internal deadlines we’re hopeful by May 1 that we’ll be able to do it for intercounty/ interisland travel,” he said. “I’m personally asking if we can possibly do it for Trans-Pacific travel. But it may be that the governor and the mayors first want to do it for residents, which is nice for us, and then a month later come on board for trans-Pacific travel.”

https://www.staradvertiser.com/2021/...aii-travelers/

Here is one of the articles (I'm sure we posted this previously) from April 10, that claims that for April 1 - 8 visitor counts on Maui exceeded those in the same period in 2018, 2019. It was certainly not a comparison to April 2020.

https://mauinow.com/2021/04/10/preli...-kahului-maui/

-David

As LIH Premiere Pointed out, Maui is at 7.2 percent (433 more passengers) from two years ago in 2019, and up 14 percent (793 more passengers) from three years ago in 2018. So in other words, above pre-COVID levels this month.

The chart also shows it; the 2020 numbers are higher than the 2019 ones on a week-to-week comparison.

Same is true on the Big Island.

I spoke to a resort GM on the Big Island who mentioned the type of guest they have is very different from the guest they had pre-pandemic: their demographics, their spend, their duration of stay, and how much they spend on-resort is very different from pre-pandemic. It'll be interesting to see if that changes in the coming months.

Can you please elaborate how different?

Have there been any further official updates on the new testing procedures? We’re already halfway into the 10 day projected implementation timeline and I cannot find anything published about it on the official Maui County COVID-19 Travel Information website.

-FlyerBeek

They aren't ready yet, so no official details on how it'll work or what the official start date will be.

The only recent news item is that you won't have to wait for any results at the airport. That was on Hawaii News Now (KGMB and KHNL which are the CBS and NBC affiliates, with a shared news org.)

-David

Too many unknowns. I cancelled my trip to Maui and booked a (MUCH cheaper) trip to Costa Rica instead at the Andaz Papagayo. I'll come back to Maui when the requirements are less onerous, but as a vaccinated traveler, I feel the 2nd test requirement is ridiculous.

I too would appreciate a follow up to this statement